The PG and FPG: Stage action or stage metaphysics?

This paper argues that Chekhov may be regarded as one of the originators of the movement to reclaim the physicality of the actor. To create theatre work that foregrounds the actor’s body in space and on the theatre stage. The paper examines his two concepts of PG and FPG (psychological gesture), re-positioning these away from an implied mystical transcendence towards a creative dialectical relationship. The paper draws on three principles of practice and theory: the release of the expressive body through ‘neutral mask’ work; Husserl’s concept of Hyle or the ‘lived body’; Brecht’s concept of gest/gestus. It is suggested these can be re-framed as a secular metaphysics that may inform our ‘physical theatres’.